Sorry it has been a while since our last post. We have been busy and the time is just flying. We are officially done with 2 months and will be home in no time. Both happy and sad! Hope you enjoy our newest trips; they were 2 of our favorites!!
7/9: Off to Siena!! We had to take 3 trains to get there, first to Bologna, then to Florence, then to Siena…the first was 5 min late and the second was 40 min late, meaning we got to Florence and missed our last train by about 2 min. We found another that left in an hour, ate some pizza, and waited, only to find out it had been canceled and there were no more direct trains to Siena for the day. Luckily, there was a very helpful information desk guy who told us we could go to Empoli, then take another train to Siena. We finally arrived at about 10:45 PM (2 hours late) and then had to walk to our hotel. We had no idea Siena had so much elevation change (we haven’t really been anywhere in Italy with many hills) so we had some good walking to do! Up and down hills, in crazy small roads, without a very good idea of how to get to our hotel, but we asked a few people and finally made it! We were on the third floor of an old building and had our own balcony!! We sat on it looking at the stars, and the beautiful views and thinking how much we already loved Siena! We ended up falling asleep for a while, then got up and got ready for bed (shared bathrooms down the hall). What a long day, but Siena is worth it already!!
7/10: We ate breakfast at a big dining room table with the other guests and met some girls traveling from the Netherlands and some guys from Germany. While we were getting ready to leave for the day, our B&B owner asked Casey to be a translator because there were some other girls from England who were trying to leave and said they had already paid, but no one could find the money. The B&B owner found the money thankfully and everything was good! Then we set off for the day. Siena was absolutely beautiful and we loved just walking around the streets, without too much of an agenda; we found a few neat shops with hand-made olive-wood products, candles, and ceramics – very amazing! We were able to buy an all-inclusive ticket to the main tourist sites and started at the Museo dell’Opera. This museum had lots of the original statues from the Siena Duomo, which have been replaced with replicas so they didn’t get weathered. In the museum there was a spiral staircase which took us to the top of the building, and another that took us even higher so we had a full panoramic view of Siena and the surrounding Tuscan hills! It was breathtaking and we stayed up there for a while, taking it all in, even though it was very, very hot.
Next, we went to a crypt and baptistery that had some paintings and such, then headed to the main Duomo. It was very neat – the huge walls are all black and white striped. It is hard to fathom that people that long ago had the abilities to build such large churches! We then went to Santa Maria della Scala where we bought a Sienese cookbook and saw a lot more art. By this time, we were getting hungry so we walked to the main Campo – a huge piazza where the Palio takes place twice a year. Siena is divided into 17 different districts, or contrade, and twice a year there is a crazy, 90 second, bareback horse race that takes place in the Campo. Each neighborhood has a horse and whichever neighborhood wins gets the glory of waving their district’s banners for the year and bragging to all the others. Unfortunately, the race was the week before we came but we were able to see some of the aftermath of the winner and their festivities. We ate lunch and did a little more walking then headed back to our hotel for a break! We sat on our balcony under the umbrella because it was SO hot!
We went to the train station to get reservations for the next day, then went around some shops and were able to see one of the districts in their colors (yellow and green tights and outfits) with men playing drums and throwing flags. They were not the neighborhood that won, but they still put on a great show!! We headed back to the Campo to find a place to eat and were lucky enough to get a table for an aperitivo just before a parade started! It was the winning district – with lots of people of all ages were dressed in costumes with homemade floats, drinking wine and celebrating their win! We ate some delicious lasagna and pesto for dinner, then laid on the brick campo floor looking at stars and enjoying the cool night air! We took a walk to the Duomo to see it at night and listened to a violinist, then headed back to our hotel for another lounge on the balcony, then off to bed!
7/11: We got up and packed and got ready to leave the hotel. We started our day by going back to the neat souvenir shops we had seen and got some very neat gifts! We saw the same green and yellow drummers and watched another of their small parades. Then we wanted to go to the church San Domenico before we left. We thought we were on the right street to get us there, walking down a large hill; however, we got near it (on the map), but were at the bottom of an extremely large hill, so we had to hike up this super long and steep staircase to get there – a nice workout! The church was massive! Again, we could not understand how something this large could have been built out of brick that long ago!
We headed back to the train station and had a great day of travel because all of our trains were on time! We got some lunch in Florence and finally got back to Pescara about 8. Just in time to watch the World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands. Unfortunately because it was Sunday, we only watched it on the internet, but it was nice. We ate dinner and got some gelato and watched Spain win right at the end.
7/13: Went to the beach after Casey got off work and swam, then played some volleyball together and one-on-one soccer trying to hit trashcans and running around in the sand as a workout! We were able to talk to our friend Kelsey from home and finally ate dinner about 10:15! It was one of our favorite meals – chicken, rice, and veggies! Of course we had some wine too which Casey and I are starting to enjoy more now that we drink it more often!
7/14: My friend Roberta picked me up and we ate lunch at a pizzeria, then headed to a town north of Pescara called Citta Sant’Angelo. It is on the top of a hill so you can see very pretty views all around. It also has a nice center which is older with beautiful buildings and churches. We walked around for a while, but we were so hot we had to take a break! We enjoyed a lemon soda, which was delicious and refreshing, then headed back to the car to come home.
When Casey got back from work, we headed to a Pescara store to look at their soccer jerseys and Pescara souvenirs. However, it was really expensive! We only bought a mouse pad and some stickers. Then we went to the beach further north near Corso Umberto. I napped while Casey read, then we played some volleyball and went for a swim about 7:30. The water felt amazing! There are some rocks far out from the beach to stop the waves from coming in where people are swimming, so we decided to swim out to them. It was far enough and kind of tiring, but counted as our workout for the day! There were tons of crabs crawling on the rocks! I was too creeped-out, but Casey climbed up so that he could look out on the other side. We swam back and then took a walk down the beach to dry off. We got back and showered and went to a restaurant called Pizzeria Pinguino (Penguin) that we have walked past and wanted to try. Our new Italian roommate, Fabio, went with us. He moved in the weekend we were in Siena and is a nice guy. He can speak English too so we are able to have better conversations. We finally went to bed about midnight and it was so hot, even at that time. Neither of us ended up sleeping very well.
7/16: I did some looking for places to stay in Sorrento, which is south of Rome near Naples. We were originally going to stay in Naples, but have heard that it isn’t the safest or nicest place so we decided to go to Sorrento instead, which is on the coast and has some beautiful views! Then I took the bus south to Francavilla, the next city south, and met an American friend, Maria, from the meet-up group. She is originally from Ohio, but has lived here for almost 3 years now. Her cousin lives has an apartment with a swimming pool so we went there to escape from the sand and salt water at the beach for a little. We had to wear swimming caps because it is a requirement so hair doesn’t get in the filter; we ended up staying in the water for 3 hours straight! It was amazing and refreshing and felt so much better than the sea! We were all pruny and sunburned by the time her other friend, Irina, joined us, who Casey and I had met once at the beginning of the summer. We swam for a while longer then got some lunch and I headed home.
When Casey got back, it was still really hot, so we went to the beach! It feels so much better to be in the water than the heat these days, so we only want to go the beach all the time! We got back and quickly got ready to have an aperitivo with Alessandra. We are sad because she is leaving to go home next Tuesday and then when she returns we will be gone and we don’t really know the next time we will see her. We went to Café Venezia which has very tasty appetizers and drinks! Then we got some cornetti (crescents) for breakfast. We walked along the beach and got some gelato and met up with Maria and one of her friends who was visiting. The walk home was long and we got back about 12:15; we still hadn’t showered or even packed to leave for Assisi the next morning – really early!
7/17: We woke up about 4:45 so we could finish packing and walk to the train station to catch our 6 AM train. We took the train to Ancona, then Foligno, then Assisi and got there about 11:30. We took the bus up the mountain to the older, walled-in part of Assisi and immediately knew that we loved this town as well! We had no idea where our hotel was, the actual name of our hotel, the phone number, or the street it was on, but walked toward the center and got lucky. There were two hotels that are owned together or something, and we found one of them, so the lady took us over to ours and got us set up in our room. Our first look into our room showed a ceiling fan!!! The first one we have seen and it was absolutely amazing! We had been given a map, audio guide, and discount card so we set out to see the sights! However, we pretty much just wandered around on random streets for a while – in the crazy heat, probably with 100% humidity. The church we tried to go to was closed in the middle of the day and it looked like they were setting up for a wedding.
We walked down to another church and got some lunch. The guy who worked there told Casey he spoke Italian very well and until Casey spoke English to me, he didn’t know we were American!!! Nice!! We went into the cool church and sat for a while, admiring. Afterwards, we decided to drop the backpack off at our hotel because it was too hot to be carrying anything. We ended up taking a 45 minute nap, with our ceiling fan, and it was the best nap! Neither of us wanted to get up, but we felt refreshed and walked to San Francesco, the main church of Assisi. Again, it was huge and very beautiful! We went to a smaller chapel on the lower level and sat through part of mass, not knowing exactly what was going on since it was all in Italian.
We walked around and up a very steep and long hill trying to find a place that had an all-inclusive tourist dinner where we could try all of the different courses for a reasonable price. We found a few that were 20 euros or under and decided to go to this small family-owned restaurant for 15 euros each. We had lots of wine (1 liter to be exact), Bruschetta (with weird stuff on it, it was ok), delicious oven-baked pasta and pesto pasta, then pork (with some hair still on the skin, ahh!!) and lemon chicken. We were so full afterwards, but it was all delicious!! We took a walk back down to San Francesco to digest, then back to the hotel for a great night sleep with our fan!
7/18: We could have slept forever, but we got up to eat breakfast at our hotel on the third floor terrace overlooking the city! It was already hot, but we enjoyed the views and the tasty fruit and pastries. We packed up and wandered around for a while, then took the bus down to this lower area we had seen on our ride up – only to discover that we had already been there the day before! All of the hills and windy roads end up running into every other road; pretty much a big circle. We sat in the shade of a brick arch entrance to Assisi and relaxed for a while. We ate some sandwiches for lunch at a little café and then caught the bus to the train station. We only had one delay in our 3 trains home, but nothing major so we made it back by about 8. Ate dinner, showered, and started trying to figure out how we are going to pack all of our stuff to travel with Casey’s family and get home!!
7/19: Got up and ate breakfast, then Casey and I took the bus together – Casey went to work and I went to the Monday market for the last time before we leave Pescara. I bought a couple more small things, got some delicious fruit, and then went grocery shopping. We are rationing out our food and we think we will be able to finish off everything before we leave Pescara on Friday! I met Casey for lunch at Il Molino (a kind of shopping center). We ate some pizza and then went and got a few things at the store. I came home and took an amazing 2 hour nap until Casey got home. Then we headed to the beach, but it got cloudy.
We ate dinner and then headed to Alessandra’s to get gelato and say goodbye =( We took her a couple books so she can practice her English more, as well as some of my shoes that I don’t want to pack and bring home. Then we went to get gelato with her, Danilo and his girlfriend, and went for a walk on the bridge by the river. It was a fun night and we were sad to see it end. It was hard to say goodbye. We have become very good friends with Alessandra over the past 2 months and unfortunately we do not know when we will see her next. We have invited her to the wedding (whenever it is) and she would love to come, so maybe then! We will see. Of course, I cried, but we have a lot of fun times to remember!!
7/20: We were able to start packing our bags in the morning because Casey’s ride was running late. We think we’ll be ok, but have definitely accumulated a good amount of stuff while living here. Casey finally got to the office around 10, only an hour late, only to come home around 12:45 because the only guy at work had to do some things and wouldn’t be there. I was really happy to see him so early and we were able to go to the beach! On the way, Casey got a kebab sandwich (shredded pig, lettuce, tomato, onion, and two sauces – one spicy and one similar to ranch, all between a pita-like bun). It was huge and he enjoyed it thoroughly!! On the way to the beach, Casey almost lost the volleyball in the river, but he jumped over a small wall and got it, only to find that he had broken his flip flop in the process. He had to limp all the way there trying to hold it onto his shoe with his foot. We both took a great nap while laying on the beach under the cloudy sky. We played some volleyball and soccer after and then headed home. Casey decided to go bare foot because it was too difficult to walk in a broken sandal. We stopped and got him some new flip flops on the way home, but when we finally got here, his feet were black! Gross! He got right in the shower to wash it all off! We met our new French roommate, Maxim; he is our same age and speaks Italian so that is how we communicate. We went and got gelato at the place, Bonta, which is close to our apartment. We have heard that it is the best in Pescara and we agree; it was so delicious!!!!!!! Our favorite!!!!!
We have 3 more weeks here, and then headed home! We are excited and sad at the same time! Can’t wait to see everyone! Love you all =)
L & C
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